Muslim World News (MWN) has reported on an Arabic-language news report detailing a private meeting said to have taken place in Beirut where Islamist leaders, including from the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, met to oppose U.S. plans to solve the Mideast conflict. According to the MWN report:
On Monday (31/8/2009), the liberal Lebanese online media outlet Now Lebanon reported on a recent private meeting which took place in Beirut during one of the evenings of Ramadan. The report is entitled ‘Meeting of Islamist leaders in Beirut to discuss “the ways to oppose the forthcoming American plan for settlement” ’.[1] Leaders of Islamist movements from Palestine and Lebanon, such as al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya [the Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood], Hizbullah, Hamas and Hizb-ut-Tahrir are reported to have met in order to discuss the current situation in the region, focusing on the attempts for reconciliation and President Obama’s upcoming plan to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. The Islamist leaders who attended the meeting are reported to have agreed that “the new American plan aspires to liquidate the Palestinian problem, and poses one of the most dangerous American plans in the region. Therefore it needs to be opposed in all possible forms, in particular by increasing acts of resistance [muqawama]and opposing Israeli efforts towards a normalisation of their relations with Arab countries as well as American involvement in such initiatives,” The leaders, according to the report, also emphasised the “necessity to strengthen relations within Islam and reject any attempts to stir up sectarian war [fitna]; this way, the resistance front against the American plan will be strengthened”. According to the report, the leaders pointed out that the best way to start would be to organise two large meetings: the first, to react to the ‘monopolisation’ of Palestinian leadership by President Abbas; and the second, Arab-international, to encourage the choice of resistance against American plans in the region. The report concludes by saying that the leaders agreed to keep in touch in order to further discuss these issues of mutual interest.
A previous post reported that the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood, known as al-Jama’a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Association), was founded and led by Faisal Mawlawi, an important leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood and a close associate of global Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi. As that posted noted, in August 2005 Mideast news sources reported that “combatants” from the Islamic Group were fighting alongside Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and that the group’s support of Hezbollah dated back to the 1980’s.” Another post discussed an agreement signed in August between Lebanese “salafists” and Hizbollah, confirming the role of Mawlawi as head of the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood. Recent posts have also detailed plans by the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a part of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood with an office in Lebanon, to construct a new university in Lebanon.